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What’s ‘The Whispering Tide’? What do you mean ‘What’s the Whispering Tide..?!?!? Oh yeah… some of you weren’t here for the original and may not be familiar with ‘The Whispering Tide’ in the Secret World Universe.

The Whispering Tide is the First of what will soon be Many Community Events in SWL. This event will last 2 weeks from August 1st to Aug 15th (2017) where we, as Agents of Gaia will be the force that keeps the Dreamers from Infecting the World Tree any further than they already have. Every hour will be HUGE Community Battles with the Bird of the Zero Point Pathogen (aka – Flappy) where EVERYONE can participate! As long as your Character can reach Agartha (so somewhere around level 4, I think it is) Jack Boone in Kingsmouth (About Level 5-6, after you’ve completed your tutorials), you can join everyone in 40 man raids on the new Community Event Raid Platform!

Low level characters will be given the “Equal Footing” Buff so that everyone can contribute to the fight!

There are special vanity items that you can get each day just for logging in and taking part in one of the community raids! What kinds of items? Check out my Advent Calendar here to track what items I’ve received so far! (This post will be updated daily so make sure you come back and check it often!)

Ok, that’s great, but what started it..?

For those of you who are new to the Secret World, or just need a refresher, remember when you rolled your character, and you went through that cut scene of a bee flying in your character’s window just before you ate it? (Yummy!) As that Anima-Infused-Late-Night-Snack was buzzing around your dining area, you hear bits of the late night news on the TV. The anchorman is talking about a Bomb that went off in Downtown Tokyo, and later in the tutorial, you got to partake in a Anima-Powered-Psychically-Recorded-Recreation of the initial investigation that happened in the Tokyo subway by other Agents of Gaia. THAT BOMB is what precipitated the events unfolding now!

This doesn’t look like the Carrot festival in the Coachella Valley…

And of course it’s not just a bomb. It’s never, ‘Just a bomb…’ If you’ve been through the Scorched Desert in Egypt, and into City of the Sun God, You’ve got a little more background on what kind of device it was. If you haven’t been through that area yet, SPOILER ALERT! It was a Third-Age device that Said had helped the Phoenicians acquire, and as soon as he found out what they eventually did with it, immediately regretted.

So what was this ‘Third-Age device’ anyway?THAT…. is a very good question. It’s never exactly explained fully, but it’s a device that when used IMPROPERLY like this (I would hope this was never their intended purpose!), has the power to rend reality and open doorways into the realm of Anti-Anima.

Anti-what…?!?! Ok, I see we’re going to have to backtrack a little further. The universe as we know it, is infused with Anima, or the Life Force of Gaia. Gaia being the Earth, and Agartha being a manifestation of Gaia’s will. There’s more though… There is also Anti-Anima. Also known as ‘The Blood.’ It’s kinda like Matter and Anti-matter; they don’t mix well.

The… Denizens of the realm of Anti-Anima want to EAT the stars. ALL OF THEM! Including ours! Why? That’s just what they do. They eat everything. Especially if there’s Anima involved. Makes it extra tasty, I imagine. And it just so happens that our little Gaia, happens to be the next in line, and apparently has the most Anima in our little corner of the Universe.

Thankfully, these Anti-Anima Denizens have been asleep since the end of the Last Age, and haven’t yet fully awakened to start the buffet on Gaia.

Now here we get into some supposition: We are in the middle/end of the fourth age. How do we know it’s the fourth age? Well, we’ve been told there are artifacts of the Third Age that have been found and one of them was the cause of the Tokyo incident. Who told us? The Buzzing of the Bees told us.

So what exactly is “An Age” you ask? There are many different philosophical definitions of what constitutes an ‘Age’, but I’m not going to get into all those discussions. Instead, I’ll go by something else I had heard along the way. Something mentioned by a certain, Dr Klein:

“A breakthrough in thought: What we were calling the “Ages’ is not, strictly speaking, a measure of time, at least, not in a chronologically stacked order.

Time bends. It snaps back like a rubber band, to a fixed point.

The end of each age was a reset. A do-over.

We are on repeat, with variation, as artifacts from the previous age bleed into the next, sending out ripples, each new age compounds with more artifacts and more effected than the last, skewing the original pattern.

There is something that is supposed to happen. But the inevitable is always delayed.

How many times has this world reset? How do we reach endgame?”

Say what you will about Dr Klein, but his perception of what we are experiencing is unequaled. We are near the end of a Fourth Age (at least) and the incursion of what we call ‘The Filth’ in Agartha heralds dark times, indeed. And it is upon our shoulders, as agents and allies of Gaia, to fight back these Dreamers as they are also called. The Dreamers must not awaken. Or as Emma says: “The Lullaby must continue. Or all that is…. won’t.”

Who knows if this time it will reset again as in the past? The “Do-Overs” that we’ve been given may be all the Do-Overs we are going to get. And this time, it’s for keeps!

For more information on the Lore/Legends of The Whispering Tide, you can Find it on TSWDB’s Legends page here:

This post was a little different, as I wanted to give you something that I hope was a little entertaining, as well as show how all the little things you see and experience in this game is connected! There is so much more to this whole story, but for me to get into it all would totally just be me writing down every tidbit of information that I’ve seen and heard in the game! And that would just ruin the story for you all… (At least the newer players…)

But I also hope that I was able to spark some imagination out there on how your character would react to the events that are happening now. This is a prime time for personal RP opportunities, and I hope to see more of your stories popping up in my timelines!

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed this! And as always, I hope to see you in the Secret World!

The Whispering Tide event is underway, and during this event, there are Event Rewards for Logging in and Defeating the Filthy Threat in Agartha!

Each Day you log in, you’ll get this window asking you to Claim a Relic. As you can see, you also get nifty other things to help you level yourself and your gear! NOTE: THIS REWARD IS ONLY ABLE TO BE CLAIMED ONCE PER DAY PER ACCOUNT! (More on this later.) So make sure you claim it on the character you think is going to need this the most!

So what kind of items do you get in this Relic? Vanity items, typically. At least that’s what’s being touted you can get. What I want to do with this post is track the items I get, so you all can see and compare. I will not be tracking the Drops from Flappy here, but I may set that aside for a later post. Nor will I track the items shown behind each relic… those are set in stone, so to speak.

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THE INDIVIDUAL RESULTS WILL VARY FROM PLAYER TO PLAYER AND DAY TO DAY! So I may get something one day and you’ll get something else entirely. What I don’t know is if there is a set amount of items you can get and if you claim all 14 relics you will get all of them, or if there is even more RNG involved to be able to complete certain sets.

I plan on Updating this on a Daily Basis, so make sure you come back to check it out often!

UPDATE 2.0:

OK – I had questions today and in the process of getting them answered, the process was explained to me for the Event reward bags. There is a Master List and the system for each character. Does this character have the first set of item? No? BOOM! They do now! Or, if they already have them already, then the system check the next set of rewards and follows the same logic. The list isn’t very Alt Friendly for getting the Armor set though, as only the Boots/Gloves have been issued so far and I’ve got the Day 3 Reward Already. (Since I had the Day 1 reward from TSW.)

At the end of the rotation, instead of getting any NEW shiny items, we will get Anima Shards. I have 4 of the 5 original set items, so I’ll end up getting to the End sooner than most. But I’ll make sure I update along the way!

UPDATE 3.0

Sooo… Andy decides to leak info in Discord… Here’s the total list in order of award: I’ll try to add pics of each item as I can best figure it out.

Almost as bad as the White House!

I will make a Post-Mortem on this event after it’s over so I can give a full review of how I think this event was handled. But that is a post for another day.

Anyway, without further Adieu, the List!

DAY 1 – August 1st

Carapace of the Immaculate Machine Gauntlets – Original ColorCarapace of the Immaculate Machine Boots- Original Color

DAY 2 – August 2nd

Military Gas Mask – GreenNight Vision Goggles – Green

Day 3 – August 3rd

Glowing Eyes – PurpleTITLE – Scout of Gaia

Day 4 – August 4th

The original award from TSW was the Black version, but this time I got the Green set, which didn’t even appear in my Dressing Room as an option till I got them.

Turtleneck Shirt – Black

I did not get a second item, bit probably because I already had this one from the original in TSW.

DAY 5 – August 5th

Carapace of the Immaculate Machine – Leggings – Original ColorsCarapace of the Immaculate Machine – Chest – Original Colors

Day 6 – August 6th

Combat Boots – Green CamoPadded Military Gloves – Green

(UPDATE: These will not show in your Inventory until you get the right Tier of the achievement. I am wondering if anyone that didn’t have the Black versions from TSW got the Black versions, or the Green version? Leave a comment or poke at me on twitter if you find out!)

Day 7 – August 7th

Military Jacket with Gear – Green CamoMilitary Helmet – Green Camo

(UPDATE: Again, these don’t even show up as options unit they are awarded.)

Day 8 – August 8th

‘The Protector of Agartha’ Title‘Vitalizing Stride ‘Sprint

Day 9 – August 9th

Carapace of the Immaculate Machine – Helmet – Original Colors

Day 10 – August 10th

Runic Automaton

Days 11 – 15th – August 11 through 15

Anima Shards. Quantity Unknown.

Keep in mind this day may come sooner than shown here as some people have parts of the Armor set already so they will skip ahead to the next Reward until they get everything.

I guess the cat is out of the bag now! Plan accordingly! And let me know what you are looking forward to the most? (I want the original Helm, finally!)

Thanks for coming by and as usual, I hope to see you in the Secret World!

Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of people talking about how to upgrade your gear. What I’ve got here is a general overview of Item Empowerment, and in no way should be seen as the “End All Be All” on the topic. I’ve just recently hit 25 50 so I’m still learning about this myself, but with any luck, some of you might find some of the information useful and can use it moving forward.

Before we can upgrade any gear, we need to know what kind of gear we can look forward to.

GREEN– Starter Quality – Max Level 20

BLUE– Superior Quality – Max Level 25

PURPLE – Epic Quality – Max Level 30

YELLOW – Mythic Quality – Max level 35

RED– Legendary Quality – Max Level 70

[NOTE: when you see that MAX LEVEL above, we aren’t talking YOUR level…. we are talking the Gear item’s level. More on that later.]

2 Items of the Max level for their color can be fused together to become 1 item of the next Color Quality Level. HOWEVER: They have to be of the Same Slot. So you COULD level a Green Health Head Talisman to 20, and a Green DPS Head Talisman to 20, Then use both of them to Fuse into EITHER a Health Head Talisman, or a DPS Head Talisman of Blue Quality. Make sure you get the one you want to keep in the Top Window for Fusing! The other one will be sacrificed to the Nether-Gods!

Weapons, must be of the Same Type, in order to fuse into a Higher Quality item. IE – Shotgun and Shotgun, or Fist and Fist, etc.

So how do you get an item to Max level? By feeding your gear MORE GEAR!

OM NOM NOM NOM NOM!

Basically, each gear item you have is HUNGRY! And it wants to eat more gear items. Each piece of gear you feed it, will give it 100 points of Experience Essence. What’s worse, is each item is a cannibal and prefers to eat it’s own type! So, when you feed a Health Head Talisman another Health Head Talisman, It’s going to get a 2.5x Bonus for the Experience Essence that it takes in, resulting in 250 points of Experience Essence! A DPS or Healing Head Talisman in this case would only result in 100 points. (Unless you feed them to their own type!)

Weapons are much the same, as they like to consume the essence of LIKE weapons, so a Shotgun will give the 2.5x Bonus to another Shotgun. The Shotgun will still take in the Essence of Pistols or a Blood Focus or whatever, as long as it’s another weapon, but only for 100 Essence points.

How many points does it take to level an item?

Green– 200 pts per level – Max level 20 = 4000 pts to Max

Blue – 500 pts per level – Max level 25 = 12500 pts to Max

Purple – 2500 pts per level – Max level 30 = 75000 pts to Max

Orange – Unknown pts per level – Max Level 35 = Unknown Pts to Max

Red – Unknown pts per level – Max Level 70* = Unknown Pts to Max

Just to put this into perspective:

4000 points = 16 Empowerments with Like Items.

12500 points = 50 Empowerments with Like Items

75000 points = 300 Empowerments with Like items

And just to make matters worse, you not only need to level your current item up to Max, you need to level a second item to Max to fuse it with. So double these totals for each piece of gear! (More if you use odd pieces here and there to supplement your empowerments!)

One more item to note, the above information is assuming each item being fed is of GREEN quality. Other color gear items will give slightly more experience. But if you get a Blue or higher level item, let’s face it, you’ll be wanting to either sell that, or use it and level it to fuse later!

Tabletop Fusion anyone?

And Lastly, if you have a level 14 item, and you pick up a better quality item of the same type, while you COULD feed that level 14 item to the new level 1 item you just pucked up, you WILL NOT just be continuing on from the same place you just were! Nope, you are staring back at level 1 again! It’s best you keep using the level 14 until you can catch the newer item up to it, AND THEN swap, and continue leveling them both up so you can use the first item in your Fusion later down the road! (Not a fan of this to be honest, but I do talk about this later on.)

And this doesn’t come cheaply either. You have to PAY for these empowerments along the way, and the currency for this is your Anima Shards:

Green – 200 Anima Shards per Empowerment – 3200 Anima Shards

Blue– 400 Anima Shards per Empowerment – 20000 Anima Shards

Purple – 600 Anima Shards per Empowerment – 180000 Anima Shards

Just think…. This is PER ITEM, so double this cost to get to the next quality level! And if you supplement your empowerments because you just aren’t getting enough items of the right type, your over all cost in shards will go up as well! I don’t know about you, but I’ll just be happy just getting TO Purple!

Scared of the Grind yet? You should be. Cause we’ve only talked about the Talismans and Weapons. There are also Glyphs and Signets that follow the same path. Glyphs, you won’t see until you have Blue quality gear. Signets will be once you get to Purple. PLEASE NOTE: Weapons do NOT receive Signets!

AND THAT’S NOT ALL….!

On top of all this, there are 3 levels of quality for each of these signified by a number of dots, called Pips, on each item. 1 Pip is the most common, and of course the lowest level of quality. 2 Pips is medium quality, and 3 pips is the BEST quality, but of course, the rarest.

When starting out, it doesn’t really matter how many pips you have, the stats at this level are negligible, and it would do Funcom no good giving people so much stuff that would be considered terrible and a liability when starting out. I’ve run enough alts throughout Solomon Island using Green 1 pip gear, it’s not that much of a problem. It’s later on when you start getting your Blue and Purple gear that you REALLY want to have the 2-3 pip items. But judging by the number of items you’ll need to even GET to Blue and Purple gear, chances are that you should have come across a 3 pip item of the Slot you need, and can start on leveling it for when it’s time to Fuse it to Purple.

Pips – Talismans – Weapons – Glyphs

1 Pip – Faded – Mk I – Crude

2 Pips – Luminous – MK II – Simple

3 Pips – Radiant – MK III – Intricate

(Signets don’t have Pips, and I have only seen them as Green level (Standard), but they do level up. And since they have just released recently, give them time and we’ll see more of they these have in store for us!)

Is there anything that can upgrade a Pip level of an item? There are two things you can do. First, level an item that has more pips, and fuse your older item into the newer one (Once they are BOTH at Max level) and then you’ll have the next higher Color quality as well.

The Aurum shop has these dandy ANIMA IMBUERS that you can buy for 2500 Aurum. They can be used to raise a 1-2 pip item up to a 3-pip item! Just keep in mind that 2500 Aurum is roughly $25. So if you don’t want to spend REAL money, you’ll need to start playing the AH and using the Marks you can earn from that to buy Aurum in the exchange!

SHORTCUTS:

Not to be all DOOM AND GLOOM over this system, there are a number of shortcuts and helpful things that you can get in the game that will help you on your Journey to Epic Gear!

DISTILLATES – These drop from the Chests that appear after you kill a Boss in a Dungeon, and can also be acquired from the Loot Lanterns you start to see at level 15. Keys to the Loot Lanterns are available from the Aurum Shop for 150 Aurum each, regardless of quantity you purchase. (No BONUS Keys for buying in bulk… sorry!) OR, if you are a Patron, you will get one key per day! So that’s about 30 Loot Lantern Keys per month!

Distillates come in different qualities as well:

GREEN MAJOR – 250 Exp

GREEN POTENT – 400 Exp

BLUE MINOR – 500 Exp

BLUE MAJOR – 1000 Exp

BLUE POTENT – 1600 Exp

PURPLE MAJOR – 4000 Exp

PURPLE POTENT – 6400 Exp

[UPDATE: There are varying values of Distillates that drop from a number of sources, including Dungeons, raids, Lairs, World Bosses, Loot Lanterns, etc. More than I’m able to list in this article, but rest assured there are even higher versions than what I have listed here!]

GREEN and BLUE tend to drop in Dungeons, whereas the PURPLE ones tend to come from Raids and Loot Lanterns. ((DISCLAIMER – I would imagine Higher level dungeons would drop higher quality Distillates, but I still need to queue for my first Elite! I’ll let you know sooner or later!)) [UPDATE: Blue Level Distillates drop in Elite Dungeons, and Purple drop from Raids, CONFIRMED!]

As you can see, running dungeons for Distillates alone makes it pretty worth while to run out your keys each day! (Non-Patrons get 12 Dungeon Keys per day, and Patrons get 18!) Another thing about Distillates, the shard cost ito use a Distillate on your item, is the same as a single item being added to your Empowerment window. So if you use a Purple Potent Weapon Distillate, ALL THAT EXP being dumped into your weapon would still cost only as much as using another weapon to empower it!

Distillates aren’t the only shortcuts you can get your hands on, there are also FUSION CATALYSTS, which if you notice on the Aurum shop pic above, they cost 1500 Aurum (or about $15). These catalysts are used when you have an item at Max Level, and don’t feel like leveling a Second one to Max level in order to Fuse it! From the Aurum Shop, they only come in Purple quality and count toward A second Purple Item, or Blue or Green if you REALLY want to. I have seen Blue and Purple level Catalysts come from Loot Lanterns as well, so that’s another reason to consider Patron status!

So what do I do with all this? That is quite a bit of information to keep in mind, so let’s take a look at what you get when starting a new character.

It seems that no matter your Starter Deck Class, you will always be given a DPS Waist Talisman, and a Health Neck Talisman. On top of that, they always tend to be 2-pip quality. This simplifies things.

Look familiar?

You weapons might vary from what you see here but once you reach Kingsmouth, this is pretty much what you have. You want to know how to upgrade this? That’s going to depend on a couple things:

RNGzus – Let’s face it, what you get from your mission turn-ins is going to affect what you can do to some extent. All Praise the Mighty RNGzus!

More importantly, What is your Class? Or rather, what Role do you wish to play?

Tanks are going to want Health, and even then, they can’t ignore Attack Power if they are soloing PVE content, so they will need some DPS gear as well,

DPS will want MOAR ATTACK POWER! But even then, some health for soloing content.

And Healers will want to have Attack power gear for soloing content, and Heal gear for dungeons/group content.

When you are first starting off in the game, it doesn’t matter much what class you are or what role you’ll be looking to fill, hence the identical starting gear. But once you start earning gear and can start upgrading, THAT’S when you need to know your plan!

But in order to plan, you need to know what’s expected of you when you reach 50. 50 is when you can start running Elite Dungeons, and these require the Holy Trinity™ of Tank, Heals, and DPS. And each of these roles will need something different:

TANK: During Elites, You will want to have FULL Health gear, but you are also going to want to have 5% Glance Reduction. One 2-pip HIT Glyph of Blue quality should work to reach this. You’ll also want DEFENSE Glyphs on all your other talismans, and then CRIT RATING Glyphs on your Weapons.

DPS: Full DPS Gear, with options to add Health Talismans for specific dungeons if they are anything like TSW Dungeons! Glyphs, you will want 5% Glance Reduction, so one Blue Quality HIT Glyph should suffice, plus 2 CRIT POWER Glyphs, and the rest should be CRIT RATING Glyphs.

HEALS: You will want full HEAL Gear, and if using an AR for your Heals, you may want to use a HIT Glyph on your AR, and then 2 CRIT POWER Glyphs and the rest CRIT RATING Glyphs. If you do NOT use an AR, 3 CRIT POWER Glyphs and the rest CRIT RATING.

Why the HIT Glyph ON the AR? Because you’ll still need the 5% Glance Reduction so you are Hitting your Target, but if you use Fists or Blood for heals as well, you would be better off with CRIT stats instead of Hit. So keep the HIT on the one weapon that needs it, so it doesn’t interfere with the other weapons healing!

All of this being said, You are better off using Like items for Empowerment across the board, as it will not cost as much Anima Shards that way. BUT If you insist on using odd gear for empowerment, meaning items that don’t match, maybe you just can’t seem to get enough Health Finger Talismans to drop for you and you NEED that one before you tank your first Elite, Be advised that this will cost you about 2.5x’s More Anima shards to get it maxed out. You might instead want to sell those odd items on the AH cheap, and when you get the MoF for those items, buy some cheap ones of the type you need.

Or maybe you are impatient and want your Gear to be higher stats faster and don’t feel like messing with the AH. You can still use your Odd items to empower your current gear, just be advised that Anima Shards will become a serious roadblock down the way. You may want to Prioritize Head Talisman > Major Talisman > Minor Talisman. Head talismans still give you more of your desired Main Stat (Health/Attack Power/Heal), then Major Talismans, then Minor Talismans.

So what do I think of all this? Having just made 50 and having both Weapons Purple already, I don’t think it’s BAD…. but looking at trying to get the rest of my gear up to snuff, I can see how this is going to be a pain. And even though we are no longer carrying around TONS of Materials and clogging our banks with them, considering our limited space in SWL, storage is also going to be at a Premium. Especially for multi Role characters.

I didn’t get into Signets much, but they seem to be mostly weapon specific, so if you want to do what we did in TSW and swap weapons/roles, you’re going to need to have yet ANOTHER set of gear for the new Weapon types, taking up even more inventory for the item and glyphs and signets used there as well. Funcom may get enough money for Season 2 just on Storage sales alone!

I also don’t like that I can’t pick up a new Item that is better than my current, and then use my old Item to empower my New Item with ALL the Experience Essence that I’ve already accumulated on that Item. I mean, is it an upgrade or not? If I have to spend another week or two just to get that new item up to par with my current item, then that’s even MORE inventory space being taken up AND a Hell of a delay in getting to use that supposed upgrade!

But they don’t want us to “…let it go to waste…” I believe is how it was put in one of the early DevStreams. Trust me…. It’s more of a waste having to wait so long to actually get to USE the thing! So yeah, REALLY not happy with that.

But being a Lifetime Patron (Can’t thank them enough for transferring my grand Master Status over!) , and getting these Cache Keys on a daily basis, I can see the value in being a Patron. Just having the occasional Distillate Bag drop from the Loot Lanterns helps speed things up SO MUCH! Not to mention the extra AP/SP and Exp we get as well.

1 Cache Key a day X’s 30 days in a month = $45 worth of content a month. That right there shows you the value in becoming a Patron!

But back to the subject at hand, I think I’ll be happy just getting my gear up to Purple Status and dealing with a day to Day grind of very minor improvements over the course of the next few years before I get my first set of Orange items! Keep in mind, I also have ALL THE ALTS that I need to do the same thing with. If you can focus on one character and do all the things? More power to you!

I think that’s about it… This article has been in the works for a couple weeks but the more I played, the more revisions happened. Now that I’m 50 finally, With any luck this will help SOMEONE out there.

Hey there! Sorry this is late, but if you follow me or my RP twitter, you’ll know I just had Back Surgery. Sitting in a chair is a Pain right now… quite literally. At the moment, laying in bed is a worse pain, so I’m in a chair at the moment!

This has given me time to watch this last DevStream so I’ll give you a brief review of what happened in it:

The Stream opens with them running all the Weapon “Speciality Spotlight” videos that we’ve seen before. These mini videos are also located in the game once you choose and pick up new weapons, if you want to see them again.

Next up is the new Launch video (And lots of hysterical laughter in the background!) which seems pretty damn cool, if you ask me! Of course I can name every scene and sound clip used in the video, as I’m sure the rest of you can as well!

SHADOW BOUND WEAPONS –

Codes to be sent to you by next Wednesday for redemption after the patch. Suffix of the weapons was up for voting this episode.

SPOILER – The Voters took “Of Energy” to be the weapon suffix.

Keep this screenshot in mind while you are out leveling, as this will help you keep your eyes open for weapons that you will want based on their effects. As of this time, these are the ONLY suffixes available on weapons!

ELITE DUNGEONS:

Soon™!

Coming this next Wednesday, ELITE DUNGEONS! You will be able to use the In game Dungeon Group finder to sign up for these, and they come in 10 different flavors, ranked from Elite 1 through Elite 10:

I like Orange, myself… which one is Orange Flavored?

Elite 1 is available as soon as you hit level 50. Dungeon loot will drop an extraordinary item as well as Distillates for upgrading your gear! Keep in mind these dungeons will require the ‘Holy Dungeon trinity” of Tank, Healer and DPS in a 5 player format.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you will be picking the difficulty.,.. NOT the Dungeon. They don’t want you to just Farm Polaris over and over again. Get out there and FIGHT!

PATCH NOTES:

WEAPON UNLOCKS –

Something they wanted to do before but it fell through the cracks, was unlocking a weapon meant unlocking BOTH the Active and Passive pages! No more unlocking one or the other!

Cost is also being reduced in Marks of Favor!

INVENTORY SIZE –

Base Inventory is being increased by 10 spaces from 25 spaces to 35 spaces! IF you are already maxed out on your inventory (Meaning you’ve already bought as many spaces as you can, your inventory will STILL increase by 10 slots, so you will have 85 inventory slots available! (I guess current max is 75?)

AP/SP GAIN AT LEVEL 50 –

Once you reach level 50, there was a lot of AP/SP that you’d have to gain, and they completely admit that it was a lot slower than they had originally intended. This will be receiving some tweaks and with luck it will come that much faster!

DUNGEONS –

Dungeons loot is getting some tweaks as well, starting with loot:

Higher Extraordinary Item Drop Rates

Guaranteed Extraordinary item on First run per day!

And XP reward for repeating the dungeons! \o/

This last one will definitely help when you reach 50, but will really depend on how much exp each dungeon turn in will give you.

SPRINT COSTS –

Sprint upgrade costs are being reduced to 2500 marks! You will be able to buy your first upgrade to sprint on your first day! Other sprint costs are being adjusted as well.

It has also been renamed from ‘Quickened Anima” to “Sprint Upgrade.” This is welcome because in my old days of TSW, I never knew about the sprint upgrades until later on downt he road… so I was still ‘Sprint I’ up through Transylvania my first couple times through! Even after finding out about it, it was still a pain to find it due to the name!

SIGNET/GLYPHS –

When socketing a Glyph or Signet to an item, this will no longer cost Marks of Favor! It will have a cost if you are trying to recover an item, however. This means that placing a new glyph of signet on an item, even if there is one there already, will not cost Marks of Favor, BUT, it will destroy any signets/glyphs that are on the item. IF you want to recover the glyph/signet that is on the item already, you’ll need to spend your Marks in order to do so.

TRADING –

Trading will open up to ALL PLAYERS once they reach level 15! Or earlier if you are a patron, of course, but this big news is that ALL players will be able to freely trade after level 15!

Clarification requested from the Stream Audience regarding the Guaranteed Extraordinary item for your first dungeon. Will it be one of the chests in the dungeon? – No, it will be the first dungeon turn in that you complete that day.

We have Andy to thank for the inclusion of Gangham Style for a standard Dance! It was originally shot down, but was later resurrected and the rest is history!

PATRONAGE UPDATES –

Increased Marks of Favor Gain, + Increaed MoF Cap! You can now earn 12K MoF per day! This will definitely add up!

DOUBLE AP/SP GAIN! This is from experience only, and does not stack with Purchases from the store! Rather as you do things int eh world and you gain AP/SP from killing monsters or mission turn ins, you’ll gain more!

And once you unlock specific teleports, you will BEE able to teleport for free!

DOWNTIME COMPENSATION:

Due to last week’s shenanigans with the Exchange and AH, and the game was taken offline for fixes, we will be receiving the following:

25AP and SP

10000 Marks of Favor

4000 Animashards

1 free Blue Talisman FUSION Booster.

These items will show up in your delivered Items and can only be claimed once!

There will be a blog post (By Funcom) explaining it all, but it sounds like there will be 1 week to claim this once it’s been brought online.

All this will be Online Wednesday July 5!!!

Payment Options are being looked at and they are trying to get new options available for us all!

Kiss of the Revenant Weapons

Alice & Smith will be sending out keys on Wednesday, input this code on your account page and the next time you log in, you should have new items in your Delivered Items screen. You SHOULD be able to claim ALL 9 Weapons, but each one can only be claimed ONCE! This is for your Entire Account! So if you claim the shotgun o one character, any further characters you create/have on your account will NOT be able to claim the shotgun again! CHOOSE WISELY!

The Hoodie and Coat will be available on ALL your characters, though.

NOTE: These weapons will only count as 2 Pip weapons. They are not meant to be game breaking like the Woodcutters were. So don’t think about Quad Pips! They aren’t meant to be Best in Slot.

MISSION FIXES – –

Infernal Vibrations

Total Eclipse

Both of these missions will be getting fixed this next patch.

CLOTHING ITEMS –

A lot of clothing items are getting their display slots fixed. they are receiving our reports and they have to be fixed one at a time, so please be patient and keep those reports coming in!

WHEN WILL WE HEAR ABOUT SEASON 2?

Next week. They are planning to release more information regarding what’s coming for SWL next week. This will undoubtedly include Information on Season 2!

Subtlety… Nicole has it…NOT!

information will include information regarding what they have planned for AEGIS.

They are looking at the Naming filter. They hear you and are working on it!

HAIR SALON and PLASTIC SURGEON –

They are in work, but there is a lot of things that need to be revamped including the UI. They will give us more information the closer to release we get. NO ETA AT THIS TIME!

FUNCOM POINTS to AURUM Conversion –

There will be a way for you to transfer your FC POINTS, to AURUM, but it’s still in work. especially after the exchange issues last week. But it is something they are looking at. (This does NOT Include your Bonus points!)

NO CHRONICLE SUPPORT

‘Nuff Said.

Seriously though, with everything that they need to get running for the new game, this is bottom of the priorities, or damned near close to it!

GEAR MANAGER

Coming soon™! There is a lot of UI elements they need to work into this, but with elite dungeons coming up next week, this is definitely something they are looking at getting completed soon!

PVP –

They do want to include more PVP in the future, but there is also a lot of balancing and work to be done behind the scenes. But changes will be coming!

FACTION MISSIONS –

Faction Missions are still in game, and plan to be released later on. These will progress your character’s Faction ranks over 10! Currently, you will gain faction rank just by completing your leveling to 50, but the faction missions will allow you to gain more ranks and outfits and perks! These missions will be difficult, and they wil talk more about these when they are closer to being ready with them.

ADD ONS –

SWL still supports mods and they want to see what we can do with them! Some of the Old TSW mods still work, somewhat, but there is still a lot of behind the scenes updates that need to happen for some of them. Funcom LIKES to see what we want to do so keep those Mods coming!

AUCTION HOUSE SEARCH –

Because of how the items are created, it makes it hard for the AH to search for specific items. They are looking at it, but there are higher priorities at the moment.

(UPDATE – AUCTION HOUSE SEARCH HAS BEEN FIXED in an internal build and ie planned to come out in the July 5 patch!)

SKILL SLOTS –

The Balance of the game is set on the number of skill slots we have now, so don’t expect to get more than what we have now.

DUNGEON KEYS –

Free Members – 10 keys each day

Patrons – 18 keys each day

Extra keys only cost Marks of Favor! NOT AURUM! So make sure you sell extra gear on the AH so you can use the extra marks to get extra keys!

WEAPONS SKINS –

In the works and quite ambitions. Please be patient, it’s coming soon™!

TRANSFERRED ITEMS –

A lot of the items that were transferred had been placed in the wrong category and they are being fixed one item at a time. Some items just weren’t showing up in the dressing rooms, but they are working on it. It is a long process so please be patient and keep those reports coming!

We should have access to most everything that we transferred with us. HOWEVER, the things we won’t have access to are the Faction Outfits, and the normal Deck Outfits, The Non-Elites and Non-Starter Deck outfits will not be visible int he dressing room due to the fact that these outfits have changed quote a lot. These have been split into several pieces, because this is something we have all been asking about for a very long time! (See, they do listen!) Each faction will have access to each of these, but they will be redone so that each faction has their own flavor of these outfits!

When do we get these? When you unlock your capstones, you will be able to get your brand new deck outfits! So this means finishing buying all skills on your Active Weapons pages!

SECRET WAR OUTFITS –

Should have transferred over but may not be showing up in the dressing room.

I THINK, more to this would be if these was going to be a way for others that didn’t get to participate in the Secret Wars get the opportunity to ear these items? If anyone at FUNCOM reads this, some clarification would be appreciated!

FRENCH/GERMAN Voice Overs

In TSW, they had to stop the French and German voice acting after like issue 5. Everything from there forward will be done in English. They do Hope to be able to start Fully voice acting things again in the future. And let’s face it, there is a lot they want to do but couldn’t in the old financial model. Let’s all hope this new one works! (AND BUY THINGS TO SUPPORT FUTURE CONTENT!)

AUXILIARY WEAPONS –

They do have plans for these and are things they want to bring back. They won’t be the same as we remember them, but it is on the ‘TO DO” list!

NICOLE’S CHALLENGE CORNER –

Illuminati Symbol Challenge –

Fastest

AlexisTheory -Fastest Lumie Symbol!

Most Creative

TWWJR – Most Creative!

Honorable Mentions

Massack – Pure Defiance! (You did get the memo this was supposed to be a Lumie Symbol, right…?)

Ok… it me… this was a dare my son had me put on the Delivery instructions when i ordered pizza that night.

Last Week’s SWL Swirl Contest:

Fastest SWL Swirl:

Yeah… I have no life… or artistic skills…. and the suckers are on the wrong side of the tentacles.. BUT I WAS FAST!

BEST SWIRL –

Djinngi’s Pillow set! Well done!

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Winners of this round get a GILDED GEIST RIDER! I found out I was the fgastest after I got home from Surgery, so blame it on the pain killers all you want, I still think I’d rather give mine to someone that put some effort into a SWL logo. They didn’t enter the contest, because they didn’t actually HASH TAG it with #SECRETWORLDLEGENDS, but I still think it was REALLY cool to see a SWL CAKE! Take a look below:

The Cake is NOT a Lie! EVERYTHING IS TRUE!

So yeah, if I’m given a code to that bike, I’ll make sure Zeddley gets it, but I did message Andy and Nicole both to let them know that I was donating mine to them! Congrats! \o/

THE NEXT CONTEST:

New Contest for next stream – COSPLAY as you would think an Illuminati Member would dress! Prize will be the Mythos Machine! Winners will be announced on the next stream – probably in two weeks. They aren’t exactly sure the date yet. But thinking that will be July 14th!

Mythos Machines

And that’s it! End of the Stream!

I do want to say THAT WAS A LOT OF INFORMATION TO COVER! Thank you to our friends at Funcom for putting in the time to give us this stream! The Information here is a LOT of the things we’ve been clamoring about and are happy to know that you are listening! (It would be nice to have forums again! Just saying..! ^_~)

I do like the new format for Nicole’s contest segment. I think giving us a couple weeks to do something meaningful gives us some time to put into what we want to send in. My swirl, being so fast, sacrificed so much just to be first. So I’m more than happy to see us given time to work on something before the next stream!

Anyway, that’s all the time I have for this, and I need to do more therapy today. Thank you all for your support on twitter, it’s been a lift to my spirits! I don’t believe I’ll be streaming for a few more days, but will be as soon as I’m able!

Thank you all for stopping by! Hope this was entertaining as well as informative. Let me know what you think in the comments below or tweet them to me @Anima_Nation.

Aurum – This is the new FC Points you buy with Cash, or trade for in Game.

Marks of Favor – These are earned for doing missions or other tasks in game. Or you can trade for them.

Anima Shards – These are earned from Monster drops and Mission turn-ins and are used mostly for empowerment of your weapons.

Yes, Trading for Money is a thing! They even have a Currency exchange!

Currency Exchange

The one Currency that I don’t seem to see any kind of trading option is Anima Shards. Seeing how this is the one currency needed for empowerment of your items, I can see this being an issue. It can keep people from upgrading gear if they don’t have enough, but then again, since his is a currency that drops off creatures you should be out there killing anyway (And awarded for missions) it can also be a way to keep people engaged in the world. Not sure if that is intended, but it will be a side effect at the very least.

Looking at the exchange screen above, you can see one side is for wanting to BUY Aurum from others. and the other side is your willingness to SELL Aurum. Keep in mind that the MoF value is NOT the total sale price, rather the individual Unit Price. So someone is selling 120 Aurum at 52 MoF/each = 6240 Marks of Favor you’d have to spend in order to gain that 120 Aurum they have for sale.

Similarly, someone wants to BUY 245 Aurum, and is willing to spend 42 Marks of Favor each = 10290 Marks of Favor you could GAIN!

What I don’t know, since I have not partaken of this function yet, is how much of a cut the exchange will take from these transactions? I have heard there is not cut, but after the fiasco that happened during the opening week, they may have added something to curb the people working the system.

The Auction house takes a 5% deposit, and if it sells it will keep that 5%. If it doesn’t sell, they still keep that 5%!

Auction House Rules…

Speaking of the Auction House, it looks like you are limited to 10 items that you can place on the AH at a time. I’ve never been that much of an AH player before, so I never knew if there was a similar rule in effect for TSW. I MIGHT be selling certain things on the AH in this game though. Depends on the quality of drops I get from my mission turn ins.

Something I found out in Chat, is that the bottom line on that screenshot shows your purchases. When you buy things, and you get your mail saying it has been delivered to your storage, this is the place to check first! It appears you are limited to 10 items to buy at a time before you have to claim them and store them properly. (UPDATE: PATRONS get to use this remote access feature. If you are not a Patron, you have to visit the Auctioneer in Mall-gartha.)

Something to mention, Aurum is Account Wide. Marks of Favor and Anima Shards are per character. Which brings up another thing… Transferring items amongst your alts…

Trading outright is not allowed unless you are a patron. (UPDATE: Non-patrons can freely trade once they hit level 15.) And on top of that, Attaching items to the Mail is no longer a thing. ((NOTE – The “Take All Attachments” button on the main mail menu can be used to collect any money you may have from an AH Sale.))

Please leave a message after the beep… BEEP!

So that leaves Cabal Banks and the AH. If you join a Cabal, you’ll need to make sure that you can add your alts to the cabal too, if you want to be able to use the cabal bank to have a quick free trade.

Alternatively, you can start your own cabal, and since this is a free to play game, you can create another account , to add another character to the cabal so you can then add your other alts on your main account to your own cabal and then just make free use of the cabal bank in order to trade freely amongst your alts. This can also work if you have a good friend that you trust to add to your cabal, or be the trusted friend in THEIR Cabal!

Or there’s the AH, and I don’t know if there are restrictions on buying your own items from another character on your account. I know Blizzard had this restriction for WoW, so I just assume it’s a thing elsewhere. If anyone can test this for me, that would be greatly appreciated! (UPDATE: It appears that I cannot view my own items on the AH, even on another character, so they do appear to have placed a restriction in place for this eventuality.)

That just leaves Anima Shards to talk about. Anima shards drop off monsters you fight in the field, and are awarded for completing missions. You can sell items you acquire in the field for Anima Shards at vendors as well. What are they good for? Well, they are used in empowering your gear, and I haven’t found any vendors that deal in them either.

What I have found is another currency used at certain vendors and i’m told it’s Third Age Fragments. These are dropped from the special Agarthan Loot Bags that drop once you hit level 15. (aka – Loot Lanterns!)

One of the Third Age Fragment Vendors

UPDATE:

I appear to have failed to have noticed something else in the game. If you open your inventory, there is a button called WALLET. Click that and you should get a screen similar to this:

Do they take Google Pay…?

I’ve already covered the top 4, the next ones are specials. You are given the amounts shown above for free. Dungeons replenish on a daily basis, Patrons getting 18, and Non-Patrons getting 12, so I would assume Lairs and Scenarios would as well. (UPDATE: Scenario/Lair keys do replenish Daily as well. Non-Patrons receive 2 Scenario keys per day, and Patrons receive 3. Non-Patrons receive 3 Lair Keys, and Patrons Receive 6.) Lairs MIGHT be weekly though… I don’t know, I haven’t had a chance to get to lair’s yet.

Cache keys are going to be a ‘meat-and-potatoes’ staple of the new F2P economy to keep the servers running. So you should be able to buy those at least. WHERE is the question I can’t seem to get answered yet though. the other keys are also supposed to be purchasable too, but again, I can’t seem to get an answer on where, yet. I will update again if/when I find out.

UPDATE: To buy Cache Keys, right-click on a Loot-Lantern in your inventory and the option to buy more appears on the right side of the Cache Window:

Cash for Cache keys..?

Please note that there is no bulk discount for keys! They are a Flat 150 Aurum cost across all quantities! How much does that cost in Real World dough?

Gotta keep these servers Hummin’ somehow, right?

If you take away the ‘Bonus Aurum’ from the equation, you’ll see that the cost is about 1 penny per Aurum. So the 150 Aurum to buy a single Cache Key equates to about $1.50 each. Considering you get one of these a day if you are a patron, that means you are receiving about $45 worth of content each month just with the one key a day!

So how does this compare to the old TSW FunCom Points?

Aurum vs FC points…. Ready…… FIGHT!

FC points didn’t give us the ‘Extra Bonus’ in green numbers to the side like they do for Aurum. BUT… if you include the ‘Bonus Aurum’ in your calculations, you see that at the top end, you end up at the same value Aurum-to-FC Point. Of course I have to take the values out to the 4th decimal place (Hundredths of a cent) in order to even SEE this..!

I see the difference as minimal. At the low end, if we received 600 Aurum, I can get 4 Cache Keys, but since we only get 500, I’ll only be able to get 3 and have 50 left over to play with on the Exchange. So there is that, at least.

So these are the currencies that I’ve found in SWL so far. I’m sure there will be more later on, as there was for the Whispering Tide event in TSW. I hope this article proved to be informative for you.

Thanks for stopping by! Let me know if you find anything else! And I’ll See you in the Secret World!

Unless you were stuck at work and unable to read any tweets, you should know by now that Funcom just posted the Account Linking and Item Transfer information we’ve been clamoring for, for what seems like months! (Oh wait, it has been!) And I think the news they’ve given us is even better than expected!

The Account linking is a Manual process that YOU will have to perform on the SWL account page. Instructions are given on the page linked above. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO LINK ACCOUNTS IMMEDIATELY! You can take until an unspecified date in August to Link accounts if you so choose, to give yourself more time to collect as much clothing as you want in TSW before linking accounts! (I just need to find a way to grind out another 185 Achievement points now…>.> ) As for the items that transfer… See below:

All items in all your characters’ account’s Dressing Rooms will be transferred. The wording here does not state any exceptions, so I’m inclined to believe even the items bought with PAX!

Clothing Items are Gender Specific – If you have All female characters and there are things that you can Claim in the item store for Males, YOU MUST ROLL A MALE CHARACTER AND CLAIM THESE ITEMS TO YOUR DRESSING ROOM in order for them to transfer to SWL. And Vice-Versa.

Dances will transfer with your characters! The exceptions are the ones like Nassir’s Groove which is not a dance you activate with a command, but rather an item in your bags. The Issue 15 pipe smoking emote also comes to mind in this case. HOWEVER, there will be ways to acquire Nassir’s Groove in SWL, and it sounds like it is achievement based. No specifics on it yet. Guess we find out when we find out!

Sprints will transfer! The exception is the Franken Chopper. This will instead be given as special mission by Moose once you reach level 50. Instead, you will receive a new motorcycle that I already forgot the name of…>.> But yeah! You’ll still get something! anyway!

If you have clothing items in your bags that you have not activated yet, THEY WILL NOT TRANSFER! They NEED to be activated and in a Dressing Room Closet!

PETS will transfer! The exception being the Shems from the Guardians events. Just have to go out and re-earn them!

Achievements and Titles do NOT transfer over. 🙁

Faction Based clothing items such as the Faction Jewelry or eSports Jackets or such, these need to be activated on a character of the specific Gender/Faction for them to transfer over to SWL. (AMENDMENT- Faction Rank and Deck Outfits will not transfer.)

Something I have not yet had answered is character slots. If you purchased character slots, or they came with a TSW Bundle, will they be transferring? Personally, I came to terms with having to buy more slots a long time ago, and it’s not going to be an issue either way for me. I’d LIKE to have the ability to bring them over, but it’s not going to break me. (AMENDMENT – My tweet was just answered, and all accounts will only get one character slot. Additional slots may be purchased in game.)

That’s about it for now. I do want to shout out to the Beyond the Veil team for hosting Tilty earlier tonight! Being able to have him answer some immediate questions regarding the item transfers was a great help!

I’m Having my first ever, true to life TwitchStream this Friday for the Secret World Legends Head Start access! Join me where I will walk through Character Creation, Item Transfers, Currencies, and maybe get to play some of the game!

This is new territory for me, and I even linked up my Amazon Prime to my twitch account in the hopes this becomes a thing for me!

Come on by to cheer me on, or at least point and laugh… I’ll be starting at 8:00PM pst (11:00PM est).

So we have the Head Start access coming fast upon us this Friday! What do you want to see covered? I have a ‘short’ list of things that I will be covering come Friday, but I want to hear from you what YOU want to see first?

My list includes:

Item transfers – I know almost everyone out there is interested in the final result of Tilty’s infamous 6500+ item spreadsheet!

Character Creation – What elements and changes to the Character Creator made it into the final build?

In depth Weapon Breakdowns – I do plan to go through each weapon and each ability, Active and Passive so you can know what skills are left from the wheel and what you can plan on picking up first!

Starter Classes – We know what the classes are already thanks to DevStreams and Media Tours. But now we can take a closer look at how these classes will play out and what abilities work best together.

Economy – It will probably take a little longer to work out the separate currency economies before we can look at this subject, but I may at least poke at this.

What else are YOU interested in seeing? Is there a particular subject that you want to see covered? Something no one else has mentioned yet? Let me know in the comments below, or tweet them to me @Anima_Nation!

If you are in the Beta, you should have received this email not too long ago:

“So long, and thanks for all the Filth…”

What does this mean? It means that the Closed Beta Ends tomorrow, BUT, it does not negate the NDA. (You are still bound by the terms of the NDA.) It also means that there probably isn’t going to be an OPEN beta, as we originally thought there would be. ((There goes my prediction out the window! Who saw THAT one coming?))

What this doesn’t tell us is if we will still get to post int he Beta Forums about concerns or last minute suggestions or what-have-you. Just going to have to wait and see on that.

But they are sticking to the Head-Start schedule next Friday (June 23rd) and release on June 26. With any luck, more of what we reported will get taken care of and more improvements made in this last week of crunch time for them!

I do want to say Thank you to FunCom for allowing me, and the rest of the community, to take part in the Beta Process. I know you all have a lot on your collective plates, and all of this is appreciated! I hope our feedback was valuable and our continued comments will help make this game the best it can be!

I look forward to the Head Start and the Relaunch, and can’t wait to be able to show the rest of the world the kind of community we have!

Thank you all for stopping by, and I hope to see you soon™, in the Secret World!

Corruption increases the Damage done by your abilities, while Martyrdom increases the potency of all your Heals.

Both states consume your life energy to cast abilities.

Be aware that a High Corruption or a High Martyrdom Level will make it more difficult for you to be healed.

Use these special abilities to decrease your Corruption or Martyrdom Levels.”

Again, this one is pretty straight forward. the new graphics for the shield is pretty nice too.

Blood is one of the Healing weapons in the game, of course, but is also used for DPS. I currently Use Blood for my DPS in TSW, and hope I can do similar in SWL.

Also being a healing weapon, makes for some good “OH SH%#!” buttons when soloing content!

So that’s the last of the Weapons Abilities for now. There are rumors that they will be adding more weapons at a later date, just no idea when that will be. I’m going to stick with my previous thought of Season 2.

There’s also only 2 more days before the Last scheduled DevStream for SWL before launch! What might they have in store for us then? Funcom also has a huge announcement at E3 on Friday, as well. No idea if it will be SWL related or not, but I’m hoping so! AND…. Still no word on Open Beta. I’m hoping they release the NDA this weekend, though! Early Access for SWL starts on the 23rd, so releasing the NDA now for Open Beta sounds about right!

What do you want to hear from FunCom this week? Are you getting excited for the relaunch? Let me know in the comments below! Or tweet them to me @anima_nation!